(a) Notwithstanding Sections 31831.1 and 31831.2, any former member who left county or district service and became a member of a retirement system established under this chapter in another county or district, or a reciprocal retirement system, or a retirement system established under the Public Employees’ Retirement Law, and who did not elect to, or was not eligible to, leave his or her contributions on deposit pursuant to Article 9 (commencing with Section 31700), may elect to redeposit those contributions if he or she is an active member of a county retirement system, the Public Employees’ Retirement System, or another reciprocal retirement system at the time of redeposit. A former member may exercise this right by redepositing in the retirement fund of the county or district he or she left, the amount of accumulated contributions and interest that he or she withdrew from that retirement fund plus regular interest thereon from the date of separation.

(b) A former member who redeposits under this section shall have the same rights as a member who elected to leave his or her accumulated contributions on deposit in the fund. The deferred retirement allowance of the member shall be determined in accordance with the provisions of this chapter applicable to a member retiring directly from county employment on the date of his or her retirement.

(c) A former member who redeposits under this section shall be entitled to a reduced age at entry, commencing with contributions payable the first day of the month following the date the association receives notice of the redeposit, only to the extent provided in Section 31833.

(d) This section does not apply to the following:

(1) A member or former member who is retired.

(2) A former member who is not in the service of an employer making him or her a member of a retirement system established under this chapter in another county or district, a retirement system established under the Public Employees’ Retirement Law, or another reciprocal retirement system.

(e) This section shall only apply to either of the following:

(1) A former member who is in the service of an employer as an officer or employee of a law enforcement agency or fire department whose principal duties consist of active law enforcement or firefighting and prevention service, but excluding one whose principal duties are those of a telephone operator, clerk, stenographer, machinist, mechanic, or otherwise, and whose functions do not clearly come within the scope of active law enforcement or firefighting and prevention service, even though the officer or employee is subject to occasional call, or is occasionally called upon, to perform duties within the scope of active law enforcement or firefighting and prevention service.

(2) A former member who is in the service of an employer and seeks to redeposit contributions for past employment as an officer or employee of a law enforcement agency or fire department in this system whose principal duties consisted of active law enforcement or firefighting and prevention service, but excluding one whose principal duties were those of a telephone operator, clerk, stenographer, machinist, mechanic, or otherwise, and whose functions did not clearly come within the scope of active law enforcement or firefighting and prevention service, even though the officer or employee was subject to occasional call, or was occasionally called upon, to perform duties within the scope of active law enforcement or firefighting and prevention service.

(f) For purposes of this section, a “former member” is a member who left county or district service and who did not elect to, or was not eligible to, leave his or her contributions on deposit pursuant to Article 9 (commencing with Section 31700).

(g) Each retirement system shall establish criteria to determine the eligibility of a former member to redeposit contributions, and the amount of contributions that may be redeposited, pursuant to this section in those cases in which the system no longer maintains complete records with respect to the former member.

(Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 883, Sec. 3. Effective January 1, 2003.)